Widespread in dry to moist ground, especially along roadsides, trails, ditches, gravel pits, etc.; on shores and less commonly in peaty areas; in open forests, fields, and clearings.

Care must be taken to find well-developed, unbroken auricles for distinguishing J. tenuis (and J. anthelatus) from J. dudleyi and the much rarer J. dichotomus. The sheath margins in J. tenuis are, like the auricles, white-hyaline and fragile.

This is astonishingly resistant to foot traffic, often occurring as a trampled strip in well used sunny paths, so it comes by the common name path rush honestly.